Why has a Google Keyword a high competition but a small amount of searches?

[Benjamin]

Now and then i see some keywords with a high competition but a global search lower then 15.
How is this possible? Why is the competition that high and are they willing to pay that much if the keyword is like searched less then 10 times?

[Samantha]

Depends on the keyword. Perhaps this is a money making keyword that brings good conversion that's why the competition is high for a small amount of traffic.

[Tusher]

In SEO, there is always a good reason for things like that, as the field is competitive and it is hard to see such a glaring mistake happening. The most likely reason is that it is a very small niche that has plenty of value but only a small number of target customers, so the providers of the service/product are willing to invest a lot of resources into getting things done well SEO-wise.